Meditation is delight-driven pondering of Scripture with a receptive heart in the presence of Christ to foster our love of God and others.

One way to feast at God’s rich banquet is by meditating on Scripture. We’ll look more at what we mean by meditation and see what sets biblical meditation apart from all other forms of meditation. We are not just calming our minds or focusing on helpful affirmations; we are enjoying the company of Jesus. Like Mary, “who sat at the Lord’s feet listening to what he said” (Luke 10:39 NIV), we listen to the voice of God, in God’s presence, through Scripture, to hear and obey and to experience God’s caress.

Meditation means different things to different people, making it a confusing term. A health club offers a meditation class focused on relaxation techniques. A clinic teaches meditation to help patients manage pain after an injury. A Buddhist friend shares his lifelong meditation practice. Your pastor preaches about biblical meditation, calling it an essential part of the Christian life. With so many perspectives, taking time to understand what the Bible means by meditation is vital for figuring out how to meditate.

Scripture mentions meditation roughly two dozen times, particularly in the Psalms—a book filled with poetic praise and deep reflection on God. Biblical meditation is not primarily about intellectual understanding but about deepening our relationship with God. Our hearts are shaped as we meditate, and our love and obedience grow. Rather than a technique to master, biblical meditation flows from our desire to know and follow Him. Scripture doesn’t focus on specific techniques for meditation but instead emphasizes its purpose—dwelling on God’s Word in his presence. Rather than searching for the “right way” to meditate, focus on engaging with Scripture while staying close to God.

The word meditation was not always the confusing catch-all term it is today. The Oxford English Dictionary lists the first published use of meditate in English as being in Psalm 1:2 in the Geneva Bible (1560): “In his Law doeth he meditate day and night.” Meditation is widely used today, but notice that it was coined to describe a specific Christian spiritual practice. Initially, meditation referred to the Christian practice of prayerful contemplation of the Scriptures and was not applied to the wide range of activities used today. When the Bible was first translated into English, the translators did not use the term meditate where you find it today. Instead, they used words that convey grappling with the text. For example, Psalm 1:2 today reads, “whose delight is in the law of the LORD, and who meditates on his law day and night” (NIV). However, in the first complete translation of the Bible in English by Myles Coverdale (1535), we find, “But delighteth in the law of the LORD, and exerciseth himself in his law both day and night” [spelling modernized]. In choosing the word exercise, Coverdale captured that the Hebrew word conveys a sense of active engagement with the text. In the Oxford English Dictionary, exercise (in Coverdale’s time) conveyed the idea of “to employ, bring to bear…apply skill and make practical use of.” We can think of a student doing math exercises or an athlete doing physical exercise. The emphasis is on active involvement and interaction with the Bible.

Meditation is delight-fueled thinking. The Bay Psalm Book (1640), the first book published in British North America, nicely captures this emphasis with the phrase, “But in the law… is his longing delight; and in his law doth meditate” There is a strong connection between what delights us and what captures the focus of our meditation. As you consider developing your meditation practice on the Bible, coming to appreciate and delight in the Bible is the pathway to meditation. One of the lessons I have learned in life is that meditation happens. I will meditate, in the sense of brooding on and worrying about or obsessing over, what I care about. Meditation, dwelling on what we value, is part of the human experience. The call is to transform our thinking so that we dwell on God. One way to do that is not simply by trying to do this but by training our minds through deliberate meditation. The biblical writers use a half dozen words for the multifaceted meditation process. In the original languages of the Bible, Greek and Hebrew, there was no technical term for the practice of meditation. They employed various terms to highlight different facets of the same process. The original words have primary meanings like “mutter,” “speak,” “sing,” “think,” “ponder,” and “remember.” Meditation has become the term most often used to describe a slow, thoughtful engagement with Scripture as the Word of God, but if you’re not comfortable with the term meditation, consider something like “Bible intake,” “Bible engagement,” “abiding in the Word,” “dwelling in Scripture,” or “soaking in the Word.” Do not let the term meditation trip you up.